#(boston's foreplay long time starts blasting)

[masked-disciple]

Man, knowing that I'm less than two weeks from my last final is really shaking me because I have so many things I said I'd do after I graduate and they're very close now!!!

One of them is going to be leaving all the discord servers I don't talk in and also pruning following / friends lists like hell and back. This will allow me to finally come off invisible on discord, and it'll be nice to have discord statuses available to me again ;~;

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The Great Cover Up 2017 in Review

With a total of 30 bands playing across 3 nights this past weekend (Dec. 14-16), everyone attending was bound to find something to their liking. I attended all 3 nights, and indeed, I found plenty to my liking. The following is not a comprehensive review, but a look at some of my personal highlights of the musical benefit concert known as The Great Cover Up. It did not occur to me to actually write a review of the event until it pretty much concluded, so, some details are a bit murky as I was not wearing my journalist hat for the shows, but was attending as a fan. I missed a few sets that I heard wonderful things about (Roman Barton Sherman doing Elliot Smith), and I only caught the last moments of what sounded like a fantastic set of Harry Nilsson tunes by some band which stand-out guitarist Connor "Catfish" Gallagher was a part of. So, without further delay, here is my (chronological) synopsis of some some of the stand-out music from The Great Cover Up 2017.

Thursday, December 14th at Flycatcher: I arrived in time to see the second act (The Great Cover Up was a total of 15 hours, while I caught the majority of acts, I was, unfortunately, unable to see all of them), Tori Amos. Leigh Lesho did a great job with the vocals and there were obviously plenty of pleased Tori Amos fans in attendance. I am entirely unfamiliar with Queens of the Stone Age, but whichever band (again, apologies about the lack of details, next year my notebook will be out the whole time) covered them was really impressive. I was a big fan of that set, despite knowing none of the music. Following Queens of the Stone Age was The Bennu doing Led Zeppelin. Simply put, the band knocked it out of the park. They did rather true representations of the tunes Fool in the Rain, Black Dog, and following an audible groan by the crowd when the band started their set closing song with teasing Stairway to Heaven, the band dropped into Kashmir and the crowd went wild. I sincerely wish I caught which band did the Prince set, because they were awesome, and doing a quality Price set with only a 3 piece band is quite an impressive feat! I had to roll after that set, as it was a Thursday night and I had to work in the morning.

Friday, December 15th at Club Congress: I missed Roman Barton Sherman as Elliot Smith, and I was assured by those in attendance that the young man did a fabulous job. I was thrilled to see the Buddy Holly set that was grunged up a bit compared with the somewhat straight forward pop sound of the 50's. I believe it was a band called The Monitors covering Buddy Holly. Next up was Third Eye Blind, being covered by Big Bad. The band sounded great, particularly the vocals, and I was surprised to recognize a few songs. After this point, my recollections are a bit hazy for a while as I was starting to focus more on my own upcoming Doors set with Santa Pachita rather than the acts on stage. I do recall enjoying the heck out of Loverboy right before our set. We did Light My fire, People Are Strange, and Touch Me. It must be some sort of journalistic faux pas to review the band I was in, so I will just say that the crowd seemed to like it. Unfortunately, I missed Miss Olivia and the Interlopers doing Jane's Addiction because I was loading out from our set. Deschtuco doing Ween had me back in the crowd and enjoying the set. It made me really want to see Ween live again. Friday night came to a close with a rousing and crowd-pleasing Neil Diamond set. The Neil Diamond set was such a hoot, that I ended up very happily back on stage, dancing and singing back-up on the classic song Sweet Caroline.

Saturday, December 16th at 191 Toole: As I mentioned above, I arrived just as the Harry Nilsson set was drawing to a close. Judging from what little I saw, the set was sweetly moving. Following Harry Nilsson was Proper Operator doing Boston. This set was a real blast from the past. I could not help but sing along to Foreplay/Long Time with a big smile on my face. "Well, I'm takin' my time, I'm just movin' on. You'll forget about me after I've been gone." Next up was Steff and the Articles doing a well-received Britney Spears set. After that was The Eulogy Project giving Paul Simon the bluegrass treatment. Late in the Evening was especially enjoyable. The last band I saw over the three day event was probably my favorite. Bucking the 20 minute set rule was Spacefish, doing The Talking Heads. More specifically, they were reenacting the film Stop Making Sense. This was a reprise of their Halloween set at Che's which recreated the entire film. This time, they played an hour's worth of it, and were really just phenomenal. The 11-piece band appeared to be more relaxed, and enjoying themselves more than they had been on Halloween. The whole set was a nonstop dance party, and I was dancing right along.

Thanks to everyone who participated in, worked at, and attended The Great Cover Up 2017. The musicians volunteer their time, and spend a lot of time and energy learning and rehearsing all new songs for a one-time performance. The venues were full, and not just with the musicians from the other bands. After a hiatus in the event for a few years, I am calling this year's version a great success, and absolutely hope to see it back for 2018. And next year, I will actually take notes so I can provide a more complete review of all the fun!

The Great Cover Up 2017 in Review published first on http://ift.tt/2iaLlRL